Cadillac Chief Wants Autonomy from General Motors by 2017

Speaking yesterday to analysts and as reported by Automotive News, Cadillac chief Johan de Nysschen has put a timetable on the luxury brand's move toward autonomy from General Motors. The executive says he expects the brand to splinter from GM and have "a far higher degree of autonomy and self sufficiency" by 2017.

More general word of the move to make Cadillac a separate business unit—which will mean reporting its own financial results—came almost a year ago. It was also announced at that time that Cadillac's headquarters would be relocated from Detroit to Manhattan, a move that didn't sit well with fans of a brand named after the French explorer who founded the outpost that eventually became the Motor City. De Nysschen quickly defended the strategy, saying "if we don't move, nothing will change. Physical relocation forces a change to processes. Now, it's true, we could achieve that by moving just about anywhere. But if you have to choose a place to set up an iconic global luxury brand, you could indeed do worse than New York."

Zach Bowman

In his most recent comments, the executive said that one of his primary goals is to unplug Cadillac from the GM sales and marketing machine in order to strengthen buyers' perception of the brand—and to allow dealers to focus more strongly on customer experience and brand-building rather than incentives and hitting sales targets.

De Nysschen also acknowledged that once the CT6 sedan and the SRX-replacing XT5 crossover hit the streets, there will be some time before we see additional new products—early 2018 or possibly later—as part of a product offensive that will include more crossovers, a plug-in-hybrid model, a full EV, and more. All of this is part of a strategy aimed at nearly doubling Cadillac's global sales by 2020, to 500,000 vehicles.

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